The Souless Slave
by DemonicMoose
Summary: What happens in the early hours of Halloween? Pepper soon finds out. I am rubbish at summaries :/. This is basically either a very late or early Halloween fanfic, where Tony tries to scare Pepper. Rated T because I'm parinoid and could be seen as violent in places.


**Hi! This is my first fanfic so please be kind. I have had no beta read this and the characters may be slightly (or very) OC.**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these characters :( all rights go to Marvel. I make not profit from this. **

Pepper had just finished her paper work, after 7 long hours of sitting at her desk constantly signing papers. Tony was no where to be seen, but that was expected of him- he was never there when Pepper wanted him. As she glanced over at the clock on the wall which had just ticked to 12:00am, the glass elevator had just arrived to take her up to the master bedroom, for her and Tony. The rest of the Avengers shared the tower, but Clint and Natasha were on a mission, Bruce was currently with Tony (where ever that was) and Steve had mumbled something about going out.

As Pepper stepped out of the elevator, all of the hairs along her spine stood on edge, she could practically feel eyes boring into her skull. She shook it off, re-composing herself as she carried on to the bedroom, desperate to sleep. The feeling had returned, although Pepper ignored it, that was what she kept telling herself to do, even though she couldn't stop herself from glancing around.

BANG! Jumping a metre into the air, Pepper spun around- more scared than she can ever remember being. Once again nothing was there, yet something was, Pepper new it. Ever so slowly, she started to inch towards the exit, reaching for the door knob. Gradually turning it she stepped out into the corridor scanning everywhere. "JARVIS, please could you find out of anyone is here," Pepper spoke out loud, begging for the AI to respond with a "No, Miss. Potts", really just wanting to hear another voice. However, her wish was not granted; no reply came, and what was even worse was all of the lights completely shut down.

Then one by one they turned back on, but only down the corridor Pepper was standing in. She started to creep after them, practically shaking with fear. Then, out of the corner of eye she just caught a films of it. A hunched over figure, a crippled leg dragging behind him. Pepper bit back a scream as the figure started coming towards her. She started to run, desperate to get away; she took corridor after corridor yet whenever she looked back, there he was steadily moving forwards, taut leg still dragging behind, a ghost mask placed over his face.

Then suddenly Pepper couldn't run anymore for the sight in front of her was too much to bare. "No…!" she screeched, trembling with horror. That didn't happen… Tony wasn't… he wasn't… wasn't… "Tony…!" For there Tony was, chained to a chair behind a glass panel in her office. But that wasn't the worse part. By far the worse was the deep gash through his stomach, crimson blood leaking out. His eyes where vacant, glasses over like that off the dead.

The cry of his name caught in her throat when the man turned to face her, its terrifying white, ghostly mask the only thing she could focus on as her fight or flight instincts took over. He waved his hand from outside the office and the door and every window locked, as if on command. She was trapped.

"No…" she whimpered as she leapt to her feet when it started toward her. Shaking violently, she stumbled back across the office desperately looking for an escape.

Panicking with anger when she heard the door being rattled, Pepper shook her head and searched more frantically for anything she could use as a weapon. "No, no, no; there has to be something here…"

"Pepper…" the husky voice muttered. "Look at him. So helpless. Don't worry he's not dead," he rasped, his voice sending shivers down Pepper's back.

"What the hell have you done to him?"

"Oh, Pepper, my dearest Pepper, watch as I raise your boyfriend. Watch as I take over his mind, and make him mine," cackled the psychopath, grinning eerily, as he turned around and started to limp back to Tony Stark.

"No! Get away from him!" Pepper shouted in despair, finding she was bound by shackles.

"Arise!" Shouted the limping, hunched over man, and he looked with greed at the slowly rising Tony. Suddenly, his head snapped back, and his eyes began to glow a deep, dark green. Crashing came from no-where as the Iron Man suit started to fly forwards in pieces, bit by bit attaching theirselves to the glowing, floating body. However, instead of being red and gold, it was green and silver. The only thing left you could see of Iron Man's body was his face, no emotion there except from fierce loyalty towards the crippled maniac.

"Hello my doll," the husky voice cried and then started to manically laugh, while all the time Pepper had been struggling and crying trying to get free.

"Pepper, you should of behaved," the voice warned as he made his way over.

"Why can I recognise your voice? I've just connected it." Pepper asked, trying to buy more time. Yet it looked impossible. Tony was still hanging in the air, emotionless.

"Because you know me. Hello Pepper," reaching back the man grasped his mask and broke it off his face. In it's place was Bruce Banner.

Pepper started to laugh, thinking it was all a joke. Dr. Banner just looked at her with ice in his eyes and started to advance. Then the laughing was no longer coming from Pepper, but Bruce himself. However, this wasn't a friendly laugh; this was laugh that chilled you too the bone and made you want to run for your life.

"Bruce? Bruce, what are you doing?" Pepper cried, shrinking away from Banner's touch, as he reached out to stroke her cheek, as tears ran down it.

"Pepper I came here for Tony. And now I have him."

"Doll, kill her," Bruce ordered as he stared at Pepper, a mad glint in his eye.

Full of ill-ly gotten life, Tony -or what used to be Tony- jerkily flew down the corridor. Once he reached Pepper and Bruce, he robotically replied, "Yes Master."

The suit containing Tony's body slowly reached for Pepper's neck, as she squirmed away, desperately trying to get away. Her face was pale, eyes large and scared.

"Bruce why are you doing this?" Pepper cried as one last attempt as the hand of the suit touched her neck, everything that used to be Tony gone. Bruce was cackling, sick glee covering his features.

"Because I can. Oh and Pepper? Happy Halloween!" Bruce cried, his manic, crazed look gone- along with the twisted leg and hunched back. With this gone, Pepper could see he was clearly trying not to laugh.

Tony deactivated the suit, as well as pressing a button that let Pepper go.

He too was laughing, although he made no attempt not too.

"Oh my God Pepper, you should if seem your face!"

It took a minute for Pepper to figure out what had happened, since her brain was still in shock. All of sudden she realised and the pure look of relief and anger covering every inch if her face, the emotions threatening to force her to collapse.

"What? What did you just say?" She spat, as Tony and Bruce shyed away. Pepper stumbled up of the floor, fury in her eye. "What the hell was that for? I can imagine this from Tony, but seriously? You too Bruce?"

"Calm down Pep, it was just a joke!" Tony managed to get out after Brice had repeatedly elbowed him in the ribs, the message of STOP LAUGHING seemingly not as clear as Bruce had hoped.

Bit by bit the anger was seeping out of Pepper, as she started to see the funny side. She _was_ mentally yelling at herself for not realising it was Halloween was she stepped into that elevator just half an hour ago; it seemed like a lot longer though. An hour later after Bruce had gone to bed- after saying goodnight and giving Pepper an apology-hug- Pepper along with Tony too went to bed.

The next morning Steve came in with news that Clint and Natasha were returning later, he couldn't understand why Bruce and Tony kept laughing. However when he saw the note of _"It's War"_ being passed from Pepper to Tony, he realised that he was going to catch up quickly_. _

_The End :)_


End file.
